1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a corner cube array and a method of making the corner cube array. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of making a corner cube array of a very small size, which can be used effectively in a display device, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various types of optical elements having extremely small sizes (i.e., so-called “micro optical elements”), including microlenses, micro mirrors and micro prisms, have been developed and applied more and more extensively to the fields of optical communications and display devices. It is expected that the optical technology and display technology will be further developed and advanced by realizing those micro optical elements.
Examples of such optical elements include a corner cube reflector, which is formed by arranging a plurality of corner cubes as an array with a regular pattern. Each of those corner cubes has a shape corresponding to one corner of a cube and three perpendicularly opposed reflective planes. The corner cube reflector is a type of retroreflector for reflecting an incoming light ray back to its source by getting the light ray reflected by each one of those reflective planes after another. The corner cube reflector can always reflect the incoming light ray back to its source irrespective of its angle of incidence. Hereinafter, conventional methods of making a corner cube array will be described.